Do we have a "Deep State?"

Powerful, unaccountable, and secret--the Minotaur Veiled!  Usually the term appears in discussing Turkey or Egypt.  I don't buy everything in this piece--the idea is compelling but unfalsifiable--but it is worth reading and thinking about. 

http://billmoyers.com/2014/02/21/anatomy-of-the-deep-state/

At least the author Lofgren was a Hill staffer who had some opportunity to view this from the inside. 

They Got Shorty

 Here's a good account of the Mexican and US police work involved in capturing Joaquin "el Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman last week.  This is a big victory for the rule of law in Mexico.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/safe-houses-key-to-drug-king-capture/2014/02/23/ab218a9a-9cc3-11e3-8112-52fdf646027b_story.html

So many times I've heard the Mexican government had a "deal" going with Guzman at the expense of other traffickers.   It took 13 years to capture him, about the same length of time it took us to get Whitey Bolger and Osama Bin Laden. 

The Problem of Consensus

Fred Singer, professor emeritus from the University of Virginia, blasts the oft-repeated claim that scientists are nearly-unanimous on climate change.  See his piece in American Thinker here:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/02/climate_consensus_con_game.html

Krauthammer also chimes in with a good piece today, saying essentially the same thing:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-krauthammer-the-myth-of-settled-science/2014/02/20/c1f8d994-9a75-11e3-b931-0204122c514b_story.html

Will Obama approve the Keystone pipeline?  Election year politics says yes, but he's a true believer on climate change. 

Is Atheism Irrational?

Frank Sheed said famously that belief in God was "sanity."   Atheists see the material world as the only reality, but this too is a belief system.  See this interesting exchange with the philosopher Alvin Plantinga: 

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/is-atheism-irrational/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

Americana:  Champlain's Dream

One of "America's" great founders.  A review by the important historian David Hackett Fischer.  I was pleased that UB published my review on this one. 

http://www.kirkcenter.org/index.php/bookman/article/new-world-man/

Going to Pot

The movement to legalize cannabis in various states represents a step backwards for our national health and wellbeing.  In 1997 I wrote this lengthy piece, "The Kingpins of Drug Legalization" to analyze the forces behind this wrongheaded campaign. 

http://www.culturewars.com/CultureWars/Archives/cw_recent/legalization.html

Sticking it to us on climate change

Michael Mann, the Penn State climatologist and inventor of the "hockey stick" model, is suing Mark Steyn for libel.  Note this post by Steyn, quoting at length from Michael Crichton's State of Fear: 

 http://www.steynonline.com/6082/stick-of-fear

Also worth reading is the excellent and funny James Delingpole of the Spectator on the Steyn case.  Note his apt reference to Paul Johnson's Modern Times.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/columnists/james-delingpole/9136061/the-martyrdom-of-mark-steyn/

Mexico

One of my past pieces on Mexico.  
http://www.crisismagazine.com/2000/the-politics-of-reconciliation-in-mexico

We are following the Snowden case carefully.  Incredible that many Americans consider this man a whistleblower.  Here's the latest development:  he apparently used another NSA employee's PKI certificate to access classified information: 

http://www.nbcnews.com/#/news/investigations/exclusive-snowden-swiped-password-nsa-coworker-n29006

Snowden's story is falling apart.  The evidence that this was an international conspiracy to penetrate the NSA and sabotage US national security is growing. 

Capital punishment

Mighty Whig follows the capital punishment debate and important developments.  We believe this debate should center on the validity of retributive justice.  This link details the last days of a vicious child molester-murder who received his just deserts yesterday in Florida:
http://nypost.com/2014/02/12/florida-man-executed-in-boys-rape-murder/
I wonder where the protesters were on this one?   Our condolences to the Ryce family and  our appreciation for their activism in defending the rights of victims.

Check out my review in the University Bookman of George Packer's "The Unwinding": http://www.kirkcenter.org/index.php/bookman/article/visions-of-order
/

Our mission

Welcome.   This blog is dedicated to American national security and economic and cultural renewal.  We name it for the great 19th century leaders whose vision and energy set the course for national greatness.  Here you will see conventional wisdom being challenged on the proper role of the US in world affairs, the self-evident goodness of free trade, and the relentless march of identity politics. We will highlight the writing of like-minded thinkers from both the left and the right.  More on this vision statement as we go.